How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Protagonist (Sam Cooke)  In our OTS we have two main characters, Sam Cooke, the protagonist and victim and Benedict Black, the antagonist. Sam Cooke is in his mid to late twenties, he is a successful estate agent. Happily married with a new born baby. He’s white, middle class and British. Sam is a typical thriller character because he is an ordinary civilian, nothing special about him. The character is represented as vulnerable, ordinary and boring. The main stream media would’ve represented someone of his age as passionate, fun loving and youthful. He is a typical thriller traits for a protagonist to have. He is seen as innocent and nice by the audience and peers. He fits into the young adolescence social group. We decided to use a plain black suit for Cooke’s costume because it reflects his personality. This gives the audience a clue that he is a normal, plain person. The mainstream media would’ve represented him as stylish and fashion conscious because of his age, we represented him as not caring much for his own appearance. Again to give the audience a clue to his personality. Cooke mirrors the character Max in the film collateral.

Antagonist (Benedict Black)  He’s in his mid to late twenties. He is a Black male and alone wolf. He is disconnected from society and finds it hard to socialise. Furthermore he shows he is psychotic and deranged. He is British. He is a typical thriller character because of those traits; they are traditional to thriller protagonists. For example Jon doe in se7en is disconnected from society. This is shown by how he wants to kill those who have committed the seven deadly sins. This also shows he is psychotic. Typical thriller traits. He is an aggressive and creepy person. People avoid him. Black belongs to no social group, he doesn’t want to conform to the norm or be in any. Our costume for black was a black suit and big jacket. The suit was to suggest his intelligence and formal personality. This gives the audience clues that he is serious. The baggy jacket was to hide his identity. This gives the audience a clue that he is a secretive person and doesn’t like to be identified, therefore that he is reclusive and reserved. The props we used such as burning money, candles, wine, knifes etc. implied he has problems and is odd. For example because he’s burning money, the audience get a clue to how he doesn’t care for materialism. How he plays with a knife, gives clues to he’s deranged personality. Black is located in a mysterious attic. The mainstream media represents someone of black age as being full of life, social and friendly. This is not the case with him. We chose that setting to show how is not all things. How he is a typical thriller protagonist. Normal young adults don’t chose to live in places like that. Therefore this gives the audience a clue to what type of person he is and traits, interests and beliefs he has. The mainstream media represent black’s fellow young adults as having soft, happy figure expressions in general. However we represented his as hard, cold and edgy. This implies his personality would be similar to the audience.  Our character reflects John Doe, in se7en. This is because of how they both have a hidden agenda. As well as their both disconnected from society. Also they are both psychotic and deranged. This is shown in Black’s kidnapping and begging scenes and John Doe killings.